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02/10/2012

John William Nicholson / mathematical and astronomical papers, 1905-1916. 38 offprints, all in original wrappers. [Sold]

The following from the Oxford University site, Mathematics at Balliol College, Modern:

"John Nicholson was Mathematics Tutor at Balliol from 1919-1931. Around 1912 Nicholson had been the first to realise that in quantum theory the angular momentum of particles must be quantised, and that this fact should make it possible to explain the spectra of atoms. Unfortunately, Rutherford's work on the structure of atoms was not yet complete, so Nicholson was forced to work with an incorrect model of the atom, and his results were correspondingly modest. When in the following year Bohr coupled Nicholson's idea of quantised angular momentum with Rutherford's planetary model of the atom everything fitted perfectly and provided the first theoretical understanding of Balmer's empirical spectral formulae. Nicholson felt that he never received the proper recognition for his contribution and increasingly consoled himself with the contents of the College cellar. By 1930 he was no longer capable of carrying out his tutorial duties, and he spent the last twenty-five years of his life, practically forgotten, in the Warneford Hospital."

He was also "Isaac Newton Student and Scholar of Trinity College" in 1907 at least, and recipient of the Adams Prize in 1919. Interestingly he married Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894-1976) in 1922--she was the fist female DSc of Oxford, had studied under Russell (and produced in some way the publication of the Tractatus, was an assistant to Jeffries and had in some ways made significant contributions to mathematics and biology.